TABLE OLIVES - THE AUSTRALIAN MARKETPLACE

AUSTRALIAN TABLE OLIVES - OUR MARKETPLACE

The Treetops objective is to take advantage of this imbalance by producing on a sustainable basis high quality, fresh, source identifiable consistent quality table olives at its own processing facility.

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Australian Table Olives - An Overview 2015

By Peter McFarlane, McFarlane Strategic Services

Convenor, AOA National Table Olive Committee

Australian table olive production for the 2014 season is estimated at 3,500 tonne, with a Gross Value of Production (GVP) of AUD$10 million.

Australian apparent consumption of table olives (domestic production plus imports, minus exports) is estimated at 18 million kg or 0.8 kg / person, with imported table olives comprising more than 80% of Australian domestic consumption.

Domestic and export market conditions remain challenging for table olive producers, with Australian supermarket shelves dominated with cheap imported products, and with limited capacity for high cost Australian producers to win export markets.

Subsequent to a 24%[1] depreciation of the Australian Dollar (A$) against the euro (EUR) between August 2012 and December 2013, from a high of EUR 0.85 to a low of EUR 0.65, (which served to make imports dearer and exports more competitive), over the past 12 months the A$ has rallied by 7.5% to EUR 0.70, thereby making imported olive products correspondingly cheaper, and applying downward pressure on domestic wholesale prices.

Whilst the quality of Australian table olives is considered to be of a high standard, ours is a small developing industry of mostly boutique growers that currently supply the local tourist market. These enterprises will need to be scaled up in order to reliably supply specialty continental food shops and the major retail chains. Encouragingly, Sandhurst Fine Foods are now distributing a range of Australian table olive products to supermarket chains, demonstrating the potential of this sector.

Establishing Protocols and Guidelines for Table Olives processing in Australia’ (RIRDC 2004)[6], and a companion publication –Producing Table Olives (Landlinks Press 2007)[7], by Professor Stan Kailis and David Harris provides Australian olive growers and processors with internationally based guidelines for ensuring the quality and safety of processed table olives.

A simple “how to” guide to processing various styles of table olives by Professor Stan Kailis can be found on the AOA website[8].

Raw versus cured?

The olive itself is quite simply the fruit of the olive tree. But unlike most fruits, the olive is never eaten in its raw state. The high percentage of glucosides naturally found in the raw olive makes it incredibly bitter. Anyone who has tasteda fresh olive will testify to its bitterness. For the olive to become edible, the bitterness must be drawn from the olive, through curing.

Did you know?

The colour of an olive indicates the stage of ripeness at which it was picked. Green olives are olives picked before they are ripe. They should have a firm texture and nutty flavor. What we refer to as "black" olives actually light brown, to shades of red and purple, all to way to deepest black. As a general rule, the darker the olive, the riper it was when it was picked.

The exception to this rule is the canned "black-ripe" olive. These olives are picked green, then pumped with oxygen to turn them black, their new colour fixed with ferrous gluconate. Since they have virtually no taste, it is impossible to put them in the same class as you would any other olive.

Treetops Plantation table olives are amongst the world's best & proudly 100% Australian grown & processed in the beautiful Riverina.